Dandelion Wishes
by Winterherox2Summervillan
Summary: Choose carefully and prepare for the worst. Karma's listening.


Normally, people do not pass the time by considering all the possible ways to die, but then no one ever really thinks of death until it is paraded before them. Vivi himself had never given much thought on his own death until today.

Today, the day in which he had been left to die in the desert.

It was not intentional he assures himself as he runs out of tears. His party was inexperienced, and had become lost in a storm they had been woefully unprepared for. He was sure the party had only been separated in the panic. The injury he had gained over the first week of travel played no part in his friend dropping his weight and leaving Vivi to fend for himself. No, it was the rush and confusion that caused his friend to withdraw his bodily support. His friend probably recognized the mistake immediately, but then of course, they were separated in the storm and they had no choice but to wait it out before searching for him.

Though, even as he tells himself this the storm has long since faded and no one in the distance calls out for him in worry.

He curls in upon himself the best he can, broken as he is, and sobs dryly into the sand that beat him down so recently. That is when he sees it. A glint of silver catching his eye as the sand shifts. He is already reaching for it before he can consciously decide he will.

Under the thin layer of sand his hand uncovered a simple band of silver, a ring, he marveled. Placing it in his palm so that he could stare easily from his curled position, Vivi chose to focus his attention on what it could possibly be doing in the middle of nowhere instead of his current predicament.

So lost in his musings, Vivi did not notice as the silver bled away and breathed itself into a beautiful bronze or how the simple band twisted into a braid with only a sliver of flat surface remaining, and on that space a single word could be seen. No, what finally caught his attention was the obnoxious clearing of a throat.

Looking up he did not expect to find a beautiful woman, but he did, and he was sure he was hallucinating.

Above him the woman stood patiently as he took in her image. She was confidently dressed in a light blue bra that was barely covered by a maroon cloth that crossed over her chest and looped around her neck and upper back, on her arms she wore light blue gloves that tied to a single finger and trailed up to end a little above her elbow. Wearing maroon harem pants with light blue fabric at her ankles and waist, and around her waist she has elaborately tied a light blue sash. Her shoes being the same maroon with light blue accents. On her person is a silver band encircling her right upper arm, and a thin silver chain lazily draped about her waist and pined to her sash by a silver medallion.

His eyes rake up her form once more to meet her eyes, and her black orbs glint with a type of confidence that was foreign to Vivi. Her long black hair, only loosely held up to keep the silky strands from obstructing her view, flow over her shoulders as the wind blows. It is as she is pushing the ebony locks over her shoulder once more that Vivi notices that it is not the position of the sun, her ears are pointed and her skin is in fact a dull red.

He gasps in shock, choking on the sand that came with the sharp breath in.

Blue painted lips curl revealing bright white teeth, "Greetings, Master." She mocks with a bow. "I am the being enslaved to the ring, and so long as you possess it I provide you three wishes."

Stunned and exhausted, poor Vivi had no words to offer in return.

She laughed to herself and rolled her eyes, "There is more to it than that, but the rest always seems to disappear in the retelling." She considered him for a moment then snapped her fingers decisively. A flash of orange light and yellow smoke block his vision as he is enveloped by the smell of cinnamon. When the smoke fades Vivi is inside a dimly lit room, lying on a bed with his injured leg stretched out and wrapped with fresh cloth. The rest of his body stings from a thin layer of medicinal ointment, wounds fresh and clean of sand.

The abrupt change in scenery might have created a mental whiplash for poor Vivi, but the change had been so gently done he truly believed himself to be hallucinating. Or at the very least caught in a strange mirage that worked close-up instead of from a distance. Despite this, and his mind urging him not to believe in the beautiful lie, the bed felt so cool cradling his burned skin and the pillows so soft that he fell to content almost immediately.

The woman crouches, gently laying her arms on the bed to perch her chin. "Nothing is free." She says, "I will grant you three wishes as long as you have my ring, but there are rules to follow and a cost to pay."

"Like what?" Vivi croaks.

She frowns briefly before answering. "The cost depends on you and the wish." She hummed, rising to kneel at his side on the bed. Taking his hand she pried the ring from his stiff fingers to hold in the dim light.

She turned the ring over and over sweeping her eyes across the ring as if to memorize it, Vivi took only a moment to feel surprise over the changed ring before he turned his attention back to the woman. Once she was satisfied the woman turned back to Vivi, "I grant the wish. I do not control you or your choices. The cost depends entirely on you, a cause-and-effect kind of deal." She flicks her wrist, and the ring does not fly across the room as expected but instead swings from a chain.

She admires the chain briefly before gently latching the chain around his neck. One hand trailed down the chain to rest over the ring and by default his heart, "The rules for you are simple. You have three wishes. One. Two. Three." she counts with a tap to his chest for each number, "If you want more find a loophole either with me or the rule itself. I have more binding rules but they will have no effect on you, so unless you ask, I will not be informing you."

Leaning back and raising her other hand she presented three fingers. "Rule Three. I might call you Master," she started with an eye roll, "but as long as you own that ring I. Own. You." She emphasized with a grin that was disturbing on levels that Vivi had never known possible. "Rule Four is little more than an assurance to you that my ownership is limited. Keep in mind that while the act of possessing my ring gives you the first two rules and me the Fourth as long as my ring does not find a place on one of your fingers I cannot do whatever I wish. To you or in life itself." She finished.

Vivi decided quickly he would not be wearing the ring. She laughed as if she heard his thoughts eyes sparkling with mischief, "My name is Karma. How might I serve you, Master?"

Illusion or not, dream or not, he would not waste this chance, parting his cracked lips he forced the words into the air "I wish –"


End file.
